[Fedora-packaging] libtool archives (.la files) and rpm packaging

[Enrico Scholz]

rdieter at math.unl.edu (Rex Dieter) writes:

> Had some spare cycles today, so thought I'd share my highly editorial take
> on libtool .la file with the world.  Enjoy.  
>
> http://www.math.unl.edu/~rdieter1/libtool-archives-suck.html

It is not (only) *.la which sucks but the whole 'libtool' suite:

* when having a package which provides multiple libraries which are
  linked together, you could create an efficient

  libfoo0 -> libfoo1 -> libfoo2 -> APP

  dependency chain. With libtool you will always end with


                           libfoo0 --,
              libfoo0 ---> libfoo1 ---> APP
              libfoo0 ---> libfoo2 --'
  libfoo0 --> libfoo1 --'


* libtool reorders linker options, so that

  | -Wl,--as-needed -lz -lfoo -lbar

  becomes

  | -lz -lfoo -lbar -Wl,--as-needed

  rendering the '-Wl,--as-needed' effectless

* libtool is a bloaty shell script slowing down the build process
  significantly

* integration into automake makes 'make -s' useless

* it creates alwyas RPATHs in multilib environments (except you apply
  unofficial patches)



Enrico
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